‘The speech you were never supposed to see’

WASHINGTON – Given the moral and spiritual state of the nation, some have called it “the most important speech given in modern American history.” It was delivered by Jonathan Cahn, author of the best-selling book “The Harbinger,” Jan. 21, 2013, the morning of Barack Obama’s second presidential inauguration, at the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast. The unofficial gathering, which included members of Congress, government leaders and Christian ministers, took place just one hour before Obama took the oath of the presidency.

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“[The address] was a prophetic exposé of America’s fall from God, a revealing of the biblical signs of judgment manifesting in America, and a call to return,” said Joseph Farah, producer of “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” the No. 1 faith movie of 2012 and 2013 based on Cahn’s teachings.

The speech became pointed when Cahn addressed his words to Obama: “Can you lay your left hand upon His Word and then with your right hand enact laws against it? Can you invoke the name of God to assume the presidency and then use the presidency in any way to endorse that which clearly wars against the ways of the God you invoke? … Can you utter the words ‘so help me God’ if you should in any way take part in helping to lead a nation away from the God whose help you invoke?”

Those who were present described Cahn’s address as electrifying, a prophetic clarion call and nothing short of a historic moment. At the speech’s end, the gathering erupted into what one observer described as “a near riot.”

Soon after the speech, a recording of it began spreading across the Internet like wildfire. At the same time, viewers began noticing that as quickly as it was being posted, it was being taken down.

Thousands of viewers began noticing that as they tried to repost it and send it to others, the links to the speech were going dead. Confusion and speculation spread through social media.

WND even received threats for trying to air it.

“I wasn’t surprised by what happened,” says Cahn. “Whenever God is moving, there will always be resistance, and that resistance will be commensurate to the degree of His moving.”

Countless numbers of people who wanted to see Cahn’s speech were never able to. But through a series of legal actions, the entire speech has now been freed up for release. The address in its entirety, including the introduction and opening prayer and the full scope of what happened afterward, as well as shots that were not seen before, can now be seen here for the first time.

Cahn, messianic rabbi and pastor of the Jerusalem Center in Wayne, N.J., charges in his No. 1 best-selling Christian book and Christian movie that America is receiving the same divine warnings ancient Israel once did. Without an appropriate response, he warns, the nation will follow the same path to destruction.

No book in 2012 made more of a national impact than Cahn’s “The Harbinger,” remaining on the New York Times best-sellers list longer than any other title.

Part of its appeal is the shocking signs appearing in the U.S. today, including Democratic leaders such as former Sen. Tom Daschle, one-time presidential hopeful Sen. John Edwards and even President Obama himself uttering the same prideful words spoken by ancient Israel in Isaiah 9:10 that prompted the judgment of God.

“The bricks are fallen down,” Isaiah 9:10 reads, “but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”

In context, the verse records Israel’s national leaders uttering a vow of defiance following an attack by Assyria. The leaders vowed that the nation would not repent and humble itself before God’s disciplining hand, but would defy His judgment and rebuild without Him.

Cahn points out in “The Harbinger” – and in even more dramatic fashion in the film documentary produced by WND’s Joseph Farah, titled “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” – that beginning the day after Sept. 11, 2001, American leaders began repeating that 2,500-year-old vow, word for word.

“In the aftermath of the [Sept. 11] attack, the nation was stunned,” Cahn said. “Everyone was trying to make sense of what had happened – this unprecedented attack on America. The very next day, Sept. 12, then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle presented America’s response to the world. And what did he say?”

Daschle said: “America will emerge from this tragedy as we have emerged from all adversity – united and strong. … I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that speaks to all of us at times like this.”

The Senate majority leader then went on to read Isaiah 9:10.

“Daschle has no idea what he is doing here,” explains Cahn. “He thinks he’s offering comforting words to a grief-stricken people, but he is actually embracing the spiritually defiant and arrogant words of the children of Israel, proclaiming the ancient and ominous vow of the leaders of that nation. He doesn’t realize it, but he is actually inviting more judgment on the nation.”

It might be of some significance that Daschle, one of the most powerful men in the nation when he spoke those words, later fell into disgrace – to the point where he couldn’t even serve in Barack Obama’s Cabinet.

That might have been the end of the story, if no other top leader in the nation uttered those strange and obscure words after 9/11. But that’s not the case.

On the third anniversary of the attack, Sept. 11, 2004, another powerful U.S. senator who would eventually also suffer a disgraceful fall from the public stage, gave a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus.

This time, John Edwards’ entire speech was built on a foundation of Isaiah 9:10: “Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s Word to get us through,” he said.

He then read Isaiah 9:10. He went on to talk about how America was doing just that – rebuilding with hewn stone and planting cedars.

Later, in his first State of the Union Address, Barack Obama took up the same theme.

On Feb. 24, 2009, President Obama echoed the defiant tone of the verse, saying in his address to Congress: “I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”

But on the very day President Obama was to be inaugurated the second time, Cahn joined with pastors, clergy, lay leaders, congressmen, senators, ambassadors and diplomats to pray, in part, that America would not continue its path of defiance unto judgment.

“According to the ancient mystery revealed in the Book of Isaiah, if after that first calamity and warning, the nation doesn’t return to God but responds in defiance, it will end up triggering a second calamity,” Cahn explains. “It was because of this ancient key, that, seven years after 9/11, the American economy collapsed. In the days after 9/11, the Federal Reserve slashed the base interest rate in an attempt to defy the consequences of the attacks. That action put us on the path leading to the collapse of the American economy seven years later. In 2008, the government made a second fatal mistake, another ill-fated financial decision that would trigger the collapse of the American economy. Amazingly, it took place on the seventh anniversary of the uttering of the ancient vow on Capitol Hill.”

He warns: “Before its destruction as a nation, ancient Israel received nine harbingers, prophetic omens of warning. The same nine harbingers are now manifesting in America with immediate ramifications for end-time prophecy.”